Beats Music launches in the US

After months (actually, years) of rumors, Beats Audio has finally launched its own streaming music service. With simultaneous launches on Android and iOS, and a Windows Phone app on the way, the service is available as of today.

Just like Spotify, Google Play Music All Access, and most other premium streaming music services, Beats will cost $9.99/month. New users do get a 7-day free trial, and if you’re an AT&T customer, you can actually sign the whole family up for $14.99/month – by far the best deal if you want to share this with between two and five people. AT&T also won’t count Beats against your monthly data cap, either.

Beats definitely caters more to the pop/rap/hip hop crowd, so if you’re a fan of eclectic or alternative music, you might find yourself wanting more. For most of us, though, Beats Audio’s 20 million track catalog should be more than sufficient. I might be looking at this more closely a bit later, but if you decide to try it out now, be sure to let us know what you think!

About the Author

John Freml is the editor-in-chief at Pocketables. His articles generally focus on all things Google, including Chrome and Android, although his love of new gadgets and technology doesn't stop there. His current arsenal includes the Nexus 6 by Motorola, the 2013 Nexus 7 by ASUS, the Nexus 9 by HTC, the LG G Watch, and the Chromebook Pixel, among others.

I think say it caters to pop/rap/hip-hop is far more the opinion of the writer of this and not representative of the actual product. I listen to mostly punk rock and Beats Music had no issue recommending Bad Religion, Misfits, Black Flag, Pissed Jeans, X and many more.

The bigger issue is the instabilities in the app still, I’ve used it most the day and it’s crashed 2 times, failed to load several other times and had problems streaming. That could just be server load if everyone has been trying it today.